How many mothers die from ‘unsafe abortion’?

Mercator.net | Maternal deaths during pregnancy or childbirth, the vast majority in developing countries, constitute one of the world’s greatest hidden epidemics. The death toll is estimated at more than half a million mothers a year.

World leaders meeting at the UN agreed that reducing maternal mortality is essential to fulfilling their “collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level.” UN Millennium Development Goal 5 aims at reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015, but it is a target most unlikely to be reached. One important reason for that, says American doctor and researcher Donna J Harrison, is unreliable data on the causes of maternal death -- in particular abortion. In this interview with MercatorNet Dr Harrison explains what’s wrong with the abortion data and why it matters.

... Mifepristone and misoprostol abortions in the United States have been linked with severe adverse events, and women could easily die from infections and haemorrhage in areas where they do not have immediate access to transfusion and surgical facilities. Thus, introducing chemical abortions, whether with mifepristone and misoprostol, or with misoprostol alone, in medically underserved areas will mean that these severe adverse events will become maternal deaths.

SWEDEN: That light on the hill is a Swedish beacon

20/06 Miranda Devine, SMH.com.au | Against recent triumphal announcements that the war on drugs has been a failure, and that drugs have won, stands Sweden.

Once the most permissive country in the world when it came to illicit drugs, Sweden learned the folly of its policy as intravenous drug use grew exponentially in the 1960s.

As the ill effects of laissez faire drug policy became evident. Sweden reversed its stance and gradually moved to a restrictive model criminalising illicit drug use, and providing early intervention and coercive treatment, with the goal of abstinence. The result is that drug use in Sweden is considerably lower than in the rest of Europe, where more permissive drug policies apply.

Fewer young Swedes today experiment with drugs. For instance, just 7 per cent of 15- to 16- year-olds in Sweden had tried cannabis, compared with 21 per cent in the rest of Europe, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2007 report, Sweden's Successful Drug Policy. And according to the European School Survey Project On Alcohol And Other Drugs report of 2007, only 2 per cent of Swedish students aged 15 or 16 had smoked cannabis in the previous 30 days, compared with 20 per cent in Spain and 18 per cent in the Czech Republic.

USA: Dear Friends

27/06 Focus on the Family Newsletter | Earlier this week, the Senate held an important hearing on the so-called hate crimes legislation that grants special protections based on sexual orientation and "gender identity" (without clearly defining those terms). Our research staff and the overwhelming majority of family policy organizations are convinced that this bill is a serious threat to our religious liberties.

In fact, this bill could impact your pastor's freedom of speech to preach the biblical view of homosexuality. Even though the bill does not specifically target pastors, combining it with the existing "inducement" statute could result in a pastor being charged if an individual commits a violent crime against a homosexual after hearing a sermon about God's view of sexuality. Wouldn't you agree that protecting our precious freedoms of speech and religion are more important than ever?

To learn more about how "hate crimes" legislation threatens religious liberties, watch our special online video .

Luxembourg Legalises Euthenasia

Australian Prayer Network News | Luxembourg has become the third European country to legalise voluntary euthanasia, following the lead of its neighbours, Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg’s parliament voted in favour of euthanasia last year, but the head of state refused to sign the law. The parliament then rewrote the constitution so that he has a purely ceremonial role and no longer has to approve all legislation. The law says that doctors who carry out euthanasia and assisted suicides for adults or for minors with "terminal illnesses" will not face penal sanctions or civil suits.

In Holland where euthanasia has been legal since 2002 (and practiced for years beforehand), unpermitted killings of patients by doctors (i.e. not permitted by the current law) accounts for 0.4pc of all deaths (900-1000 per year), according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Violence in Burma forces Karen Villagers to Flee to Thailand

Assist News | Recent attacks by the ruling Burmese military junta against ethnic Karen villagers have forced thousands of refugees to flee across the border into Thailand, creating a humanitarian crisis.

According to Christian Freedom International (CFI), fierce combat and mortar fire have forced more than 4,000 ethnic Karen villagers to escape for their safety since the beginning of June. More are arriving into Thailand every day.

UK: In Praise of Discrimination (... Witches Sue Church)

Bill Muehlenberg | We are told we are not allowed to discriminate. Well, it all depends. There are plenty of things that we should discriminate against. We should discriminate against Nazis, paedophiles and arsonists. We should be discriminating when it comes to right and wrong. We should in fact discriminate all the time, in appropriate circumstances. ... Now, because of various anti-discrimination laws and equal opportunity legislation, we are getting into all sorts of strife. And when you add religious vilification laws into the mix, then you really do have trouble.

Therefore all sorts of absurd cases of “discrimination” are being brought up when they never should have  arisen in the first place ... A group of pagans in the UK are claiming the Catholic Church has discriminated against them for not allowing them to have a ‘Witches’ Ball’.

As one press account put it: “A Pagan group in Britain has accused a Catholic social club of religious discrimination for refusing to host a Pagan group’s Annual Witches’ Ball on the grounds it was ‘not compatible with the Catholic ethos’.” Sandra Davis, 61, a High Priestess of the Pagan group, asked, “Does the church check everyone’s beliefs before allowing them in the club?”

USA: Full Court Press for Homosexual Agenda

Focus on the Family Newsletter | The push to give the gay community special protection in the "hate crimes" bill is a key goal for homosexual activists who seek to silence all opposing viewpoints. Incredibly, President Obama, who did not send a representative to the annual National Day of Prayer event, is set to host a White House commemoration honoring the birth of the homosexual rights movement. In addition, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has just been reintroduced, putting Christian ministries and businesses in the crosshairs of political correctness.
To learn more about these issues, watch our latest Focus Action Update video report. .

British mum's embryo given to wrong woman, then aborted

15/06 News.com.au | AN IVF clinic has admitted giving a couple's last embryo to the wrong woman, who then had the baby aborted. The UK clinic failed to follow its own procedures and has acknowledged the blunder was "extremely upsetting" for everyone involved.

But the woman who should have received the embryo has told how the mistake left her and her husband "shaking with shock and bursting with anger". She said: "I kept thinking, 'They’ve killed our baby! Killed our baby!'

... the woman and her husband had a son in 2003 after treatment at IVF Wales Clinic, part of Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. In 2007 they were advised one of their embryos was still viable and decided to try for another child.

USA: Scourging at the Tiller

12/06 George Neumayr, The American Spectator | Liberalism hacks off the branch on which society sits, then blames conservatism for its fall. On smug shows like Hardball, liberals gasp self-righteously about the assassination of abortionist George Tiller and the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. How -- they ask while glancing furiously at the "right" -- did killing become thinkable in America?

Mother Teresa answered their question over a decade ago at a D.C. prayer breakfast that they snored through: "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.…If we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

The fashionable left presides over a culture of death, using man-made legal parchments to mop up its encircling pools of blood. But the blood never comes out; the stain remains and grows more obvious with time.

What threatens America's future the most is not the transparently rancid extremism of the insane, but the "mainstream" extremism of the rich and powerful.

Europe takes a sharp turn to the right

11/06 European Voice.com | The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) emerged victorious from the 2009 European Parliament elections, while the Party of European Socialists (PES) was the big loser.

... The Socialists were confirmed as losers in each of the EU's biggest six states: Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Poland.

In Germany, where the Social Democrats (SPD) are coalition partners with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), the SPD was punished while the CDU vote held up more strongly than expected. In France, the UMP of Nicolas Sarkozy won more than twice as many seats as the Socialist Party (PS), whose vote collapsed. In the UK, the Labour government suffered its worst-ever election since 1945.

The story was repeated across Europe. In the Netherlands, the Labour Party (PdvA) suffered losses, while the Christian Democrat party of Jan Peter Balkenende held its own.

UK: Labour stumbles closer to historical oblivion

11/06 Times Online | The elephant in the room, ignored by most commentators and politicians, perhaps because it is too disturbing to their settled world view, is what will happen to British politics once the Labour Party completes, with Mr Brown's help, the longest assisted suicide in history. What will be the consequences for Britain's political balance if Labour is permanently eliminated as a serious electoral force?

... ask yourself a simple question: whose votes can Mr Brown hope to win with his promises to increase public spending year after year after the election, despite the financial crisis and the immense deficits run up by his Government? To convince anyone about anything Mr Brown first has to overcome an enormous hurdle - he has to be believed. Who is going to be naive enough to think that Mr Brown could spend money in the next parliament which his own Chancellor says he will not have?

UK: Coroners and Justice Bill - Three assisted suicide amendments have so far been tabled

Christian Concern for the Nation CCFON & Care Not Killing | The Coroners and Justice Bill is a complex piece of legislation which, amongst other things, is attempting to tighten up the Suicide Act 1961 to prevent the internet promotion of suicide. The government have been rightly concerned about the increasing level of 'copycat' suicides amongst young people (as illustrated in the recent Bridgend cluster) which are linked to websites glorifying or promoting suicide.

However, the pro-euthanasia lobby, which has repeatedly failed over many decades to change the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia in this country, has seen the Coroners and Justice Bill as a vehicle which they can hijack in order to slip in assisted suicide or euthanasia amendments unnoticed through the back door.

 We have recently seen a very high profile campaign built around 'hard cases' usually of people taking relatives to the Dignitas suicide facility in Switzerland in an attempt to try to raise public and parliamentary support for a change in the law

Children As Trophies - Examining the Evidence on Same Sex Parenting

By UK Sociologist, Patricia Morgan, The Christian Institute | “I’m not in favour of gay couples seeking to adopt children because I question whether that is the right start in life. We should not see children as trophies.

Children, in my judgement, and I think it’s the judgement of almost everyone including single parents, are best brought up where you have two natural parents in a stable relationship. There’s no question about that. What we know from the evidence is that, generally speaking, that stability is more likely to occur where the parents are married than where they are not.”

The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP on the Today programme, 4 November 1998

Underground Church Growing in Muslim-Dominated Indonesia

08/06 Charisma Mag | Pentecostals on the tsunami-ravaged coast of Indonesia are experiencing a wave of conversions and healings.

In the strongly Muslim Aceh province of northern Sumatra—where 167,000 people died in the 2004 tsunami—the underground church movement is growing, with Pentecostal congregations thriving.

Indonesia has an official policy of religious tolerance, but in Muslim-dominated areas Christians face open hostility and persecution. In Aceh province, churches must register with the authorities and are not permitted to evangelize. Many Christians choose to meet in unregistered—or underground—churches.

UK: Christianity 'discriminated against by Gordon Brown's Government'

06/06 Telegraph.co.uk | The damning critique of Labour, which is endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, says ministers are only paying "lip service" to the Anglican Church while "focusing intently" on other religions.

It claims Gordon Brown's Government is failing society and lacks a moral vision for the country. And in an end to decades of tension between the Church and the Conservatives, the comprehensive study praises the Tories for their "strident" approach to combating poverty.

Instead it says it is Labour which is failing to acknowledge the breakdown in society and excluding vital religious voices.

... The new study, commissioned by the Church and written by academics based at the Von Hugel Institute at Cambridge University, states: "Despite many voices in the Church telling us, 'there is no difference between any of the parties on these issues,' the reality is otherwise.

"Of all our interviewees, Conservative advisors and politicians were among the most comfortable and enthusiastic regarding involving faith groups in this renewal of the third sector, and believed that Christian churches had something 'unique' to bring to the table as strong local leaders."

UK: This will pull us over the edge on assisted suicide

Dominic Lawson, Times Online | Suppose you had encountered Neil and Kazumi Puttick last Sunday evening, as they approached the edge of Beachy Head. Suppose, further, that you had somehow intuited that they were about to leap into the 500ft drop near the Belle Tout lighthouse. Would you have done everything in your power to dissuade them from taking that plunge into certain annihilation?

Imagine, then, that 34-year-old Neil and his 44-year-old wife Kazumi explained to you that they were carrying in their rucksack the body of their profoundly disabled five-year-old son Sam, who had died at their home in Wiltshire two days earlier; that they had made this long journey to the edge of England because they had always felt that their life without Sam would be intolerable; that they were indeed now suffering unbearably and that all they wanted to do was to join him in the hereafter.

Would you, at that point, rush off to get members of the Beachy Head chaplaincy team to help prevent the Putticks from ending it all? Or would you tell them that it was no one’s right to question their decision or the reasons for it; that, in fact, you knew the best spot to leap off to avoid any possibility of landing safely on a ledge and would be happy to lead them to it?

To judge from the responses to Lord Falconer’s article last week, advocating the removal of any possibility of prosecution against those escorting would-be suicides to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, the great majority are in the second category.

USA: Hundreds Pay Last Respects to George Tiller

12/06 Aaron J. Leichman, The Christian Post | More than 850 people gathered Saturday to pay their last respects to late-term abortion provider George Tiller, who was gunned down last Sunday in the foyer of his own church.

Tiller’s funeral at College Hill United Method Church in Wichita, Kan., also drew out protestors from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, a virulent cult that has terrorized funerals across the nation. Local police and federal marshals, however, were on site to provide security, keeping protestors about 500 feet away from the church. A dozen counter-demonstrators were also present to drown out the singing of the Westboro clan.

Though Tiller for years had been chastised for providing abortions for women more than seven months pregnant, his murder last week was widely condemned.

Letter moves county to allow 'God' at civil weddings

11/06 Charlie Butts,, One News Now | "An individual was wanting to preside over the wedding of a relative, so he went down to the Sacramento County registrar's office that is responsible for certifying to do weddings," the attorney states. According to a PJI press release, Manuel Zamorano received permission to do that, but was shocked when told it was not permissible to mention God in the ceremony, since the permit came from a government department. Accompanying the instructions from the county was the following statement: "You may use any ceremony of your choice as long as the ceremony does not have any religious connotations."

USA: Sotomayor: Never thought about rights of unborn

11/06 Jim Brown, One News Now | President Obama's Supreme Court nominee has made an astonishing admission -- she has never considered whether an unborn child has any rights. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) says he had a "good meeting" with Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday that covered a broad range of issues, but none of his concerns about the high court nominee were eased.

USA: An Epidemic Delayed

The American Spectator | Technological advancements have afforded many benefits to the pro-life cause. Ultrasound imaging has revealed the child in the womb as a living, feeling human being, and at earlier stages than previously thought possible. The widespread use of such technology helps explain significant shifts towards the pro-life position -- both in sentiment and in deed, especially among young Americans -- over the last fifteen years.

But medical technology has had some negative effects, too, especially for unborn babies with disabilities. Ultrasound imaging is routinely employed to discern genetic abnormalities in unborn children and to end the lives of those who fail to meet the standards of a culture that increasingly views genetic perfection as an entitlement.

This month, Sequenom, a company that makes genetic analysis products, was set to release a new genetic test for Down syndrome. The test, called SEQureDX, has been hailed by some as "the Holy Grail of genetic testing," because it is safer and more accurate than any previous prenatal genetic test. But once it hits the market, SEQureDX may become known for something far less inspiring: as a leading tool for the elimination of an entire class of people.

New Zealand: Time for action

11/06 The Maxim Instititute | It will be news to no-one that New Zealand's family violence problem is acute. Yet this is news that we must not get used to hearing. A new review published by the Office of the Children's Commissioner should be a catalyst for some genuine soul-searching about who is most at risk, and what we can do to help them.

According to the review, risk factors which increase the likelihood of a child suffering "fatal assault or serious injury" before their fifth birthday, include children living with "non-biological" fathers, a background of domestic violence, "mental illness," "alcohol and drug abuse," poverty and the ethnicity of the child. It confronts us with an uncomfortable statistic: "In New Zealand, Maori ethnicity is a static risk factor" associated with a six-fold greater risk for male children and a three-fold greater risk for female children

USA: George Tiller's Family Permanently Closes Abortion Clinic

10/06 Katherine Phan, The Christian Post |The Kansas-based abortion clinic of the late George Tiller will be "permanently closed," effective immediately, his family announced Tuesday. In a statement released by their attorney, family members of the late-term abortion doctor said they will be "ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic." Tiller had run the Women's Health Care Services clinic in Wichita from 1975 until last week, when he was shot and killed during a Sunday service at his Lutheran church.

"We are proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father and know that women's health care needs have been met because of his dedication and service," said the Tiller family just days after Tiller’s funeral, which drew more than 850 people. "That is a legacy that will never die."

UK: Brown a big loser as Europe veers to right

09/06 The Age.com.au | A RIGHT-WING political wind has blown across Europe, sweeping the far-right British National Party into the European Parliament and delivering another humiliating blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party.

As the results of the four-day poll rolled in, a record low turnout saw electoral gains for unaligned, far-right and anti-immigration parties in the Netherlands, where anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders won a seat, and in Austria, Belgium, Britain and Slovakia.

Next Frontier? Polygamists demand multi-sex marriage

05/06 World Net Daily | A polygamy advocacy organization says the New Hampshire law that is intended to assure "equal access to marriage" for all instead specifically embeds in state statutes bigotry against polygamists. According to a statement posted on the Pro-Polygamy website, when on Wednesday New Hampshire "became the sixth U.S. State to codify the legal construction of same sex marriage," it was hailed by homosexuals as a "civil rights victory."

"Declaring that the new law advances fairness and equality for all, they proclaimed that New Hampshire had supposedly 'ended discrimination' for everyone," the statement said. "But the law did no such thing. Rather, it intentionally 'discriminates' against consenting adult polygamists – indeed, on purpose," the organization said.

President Barack Obama's new necklace is no small gesture

05/06 Chicago Tribune | President Barack Obama left Saudi Arabia with bling fit for a king, or from a king anyway. And it's a gift that not just anybody gets.

Obama spent his first Arabian night on his Middle East journey at the desert stallion farm of King Abdullah, who presented the president with a heavy gold chain and super-size medallion—the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit.

"Those are only given to the very few friends of the king, and you are certainly one of those," Abdullah told Obama during the Wednesday ceremony in an ornate, chandeliered room of the royal retreat with marbled columns and engraved mirrors.

USA: Evangelicals frustrated by Obama's 'Gay Pride' decree

03/06 Michael Foust, Baptist Press | President Obama Monday named June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month" issuing a proclamation that goes even further than those of former President Clinton in its pro-homosexuality slant.

Clinton was the last president to issue such a proclamation, first doing so in 1999 and then in 2000 before he left office. Obama's 572-word proclamation calls for ending the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy -- which was put in place under Clinton -- and also includes the phrase "transgender" for a first time. Clinton's proclamations never referenced transgenderism, a category that includes cross-dressers and people undergoing sex change operations. Another first: Obama's proclamation reiterates his support for same-sex civil union laws.

Europe: On the Fringe

The Maxim Instititute | This week's European elections have let loose a political earthquake, with centre-right and hard-line fringe parties attracting support across Europe. In the United Kingdom, driven by low voter turnout and fury over economic stagnation, expense scandals and corruption, the "ultra-nationalist" British National Party took two seats in the troubled North.

In the UK, just 34 percent cast their votes, with traditional Labour supporters either staying home or swinging to the BNP, delivering Labour a record low 15 percent of the vote, beaten by the Conservatives and the Euro-sceptic UK Independence Party. The low turnout, together with the rise of extreme and radical voices like the BNP, brings into sharp focus the fragility of the democratic process. Why would such parties attract this support

China: Tiananmen: 20 years on

The Maxim Instititute | This week's European elections have let loose a political earthquake, with centre-right and hard-line fringe parties attracting support across Europe. In the United Kingdom, driven by low voter turnout and fury over economic stagnation, expense scandals and corruption, the "ultra-nationalist" British National Party took two seats in the troubled North.

In the UK, just 34 percent cast their votes, with traditional Labour supporters either staying home or swinging to the BNP, delivering Labour a record low 15 percent of the vote, beaten by the Conservatives and the Euro-sceptic UK Independence Party. The low turnout, together with the rise of extreme and radical voices like the BNP, brings into sharp focus the fragility of the democratic process. Why would such parties attract this support

Osama bin Laden bid to spoil Barack Obama tour

04/06 The Australian | US President Barack Obama last night began a landmark Middle East mission to reach out to the world's Muslims, but earned a swift rebuke from Osama bin Laden in a new audiotape.

Mr Obama arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a red-carpet welcome and a kiss on both cheeks from Saudi King Abdullah, a key regional powerbroker who serves as protector of the two holiest shrines in Islam.

But minutes after Air Force One touched down, Al-Jazeera television aired a new tape from the al-Qa'ida chief, hot on the heels of a statement from his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who lashed out at Mr Obama's "bloody messages".

Barack Obama seeks to heal US's rift with Islam

04/06 The Australian | US President Barack Obama will today make a historic multimedia address from an ancient hub of Arab civilisation to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, seeking to narrow a chasm between the US and Islam.

Early today, Obama will fly from one centre of Islam, Saudi Arabia, to another, Egypt, to give a long-awaited speechin Cairo crafted to temper antipathy towards the US felt by many of the faithful.

“There has been a breach, an undeniable breach between America and the Islamic world,” said David Axelrod, Obama's top political advisor, as the president launched his Middle East mission with talks with Saudi King Abdullah. “And that breach has been years in the making, it is not going to be reversed with one speech. It is not going to be reversed perhaps, in one administration.

Canada: Private Choices, Public Costs

referred by The Maxim Instititute | A report from the Institute of Marriage and Family in Canada has outlined the financial costs associated with family breakdown, estimating that almost seven billion dollars is spent annually in Canada, as a result of broken families. These costs come through money spent on court and legal fees, and through government transfers like welfare. The report also finds that child poverty is often connected to family structure stating "subsequent to a marriage or relationship ending, women and children are significantly more likely to fall into poverty than those in intact families, even when we control for socioeconomic status." This report is similar to "The Value of Family," a report released in New Zealand last year that looked at financial costs of family breakdown in New Zealand.

UK: Christian Votes Count

Christian Concern for Our Nation | For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Romans 13:1 (ESV)

With the European and local elections now less than 24 hours away it is crucial that all of us cast our vote wisely. CCFON urges all our supporters to seek the Lord about where to place our vote and to exercise biblical wisdom in our choice of party.

Aussie police on inside with Agents from Indonesia

02/06 Herald Sun | ELITE counter-terrorism teams in Indonesia have foiled several planned terrorist attacks since the last successful attack in 2005. Weapons and explosives were seized in some of the raids by Indonesia's Satgas and Special Detachment 88 units.

Indonesian-based Australian Federal Police agents helped by providing intelligence, analysis and technical expertise during the successful operations.

USA: Judges: No Bible At Kindergarten Show And Tell

02/06 The Denver Channel | A U.S. court says a kindergartner's mother cannot read Scripture during show and tell, even if the Bible is the boy's favorite book

USA: LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION

June 1, 2009

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.... FULL WHITE HOUSE SPEECH

PJ O'Rourke lecture viewable online

referred by The Maxim Instititute | In April, PJ O'Rourke delivered a lecture in Auckland, for the Center for Independent Studies, titled "Invisible Hand versus Visible Fist." The lecture is now available for viewing online. PJ O'Rourke is a leading political satirist in America and best-selling author of twelve books, the most prolific of which is On the Wealth of Nations, an exploration of Adam Smith's work. His view of economics and politics in the world today and his witty style make him definitely worth a listen.

Watch "Invisible Hand versus Visible Fist -

USA: Man Held in Killing of Kansas Abortion Provider

03/06 Assist News | A 51-year-old man was in a Kansas jail Monday, held on suspicion of first-degree murder in the killing of a physician whose women's clinic frequently took center stage in the debate over abortion, authorities said.

Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed while serving as an usher at his Wichita, Kansas, church Sunday morning, according to police. Tiller was one of the few U.S. physicians who still perform late-term abortions. He had survived a 1993 shooting outside his clinic.

CNN reported that Scott Roeder, 51, from the Kansas City, Kansas, area is being held without bond in the Sedgwick County Adult Detention Facility, according to the sheriff's office Web site. In addition to the murder charge, he also faces two counts of aggravated assault. Police said they believe he acted alone.

EUROPE: Eurabia Has A Capital: Rotterdam

03/06 Sandro Magister, Chiesa News | Here entire neighborhoods look like the Middle East, women walk around veiled, the mayor is a Muslim, sharia law is applied in the courts and the theaters. An extensive report from the most Islamized city in Europe.

... In 2002, the scholar Bat Ye'or, a British citizen born in Egypt and a specialist in the history of the Christian and Jewish minorities in Muslim countries – called the "dhimmi" – coined the term "Eurabia" to describe the fate toward which Europe is moving. It is a fate of submission to Islam, of "dhimmitude.".

SAUDI ARABIA: Wife jailed for cheating on her husband

03/06 SMH.com.au | A mother-of-two and her alleged lover, a fellow Briton, were on Tuesday sentenced to two months in jail in Dubai after being convicted of adultery, the British embassy said. "I can confirm that they have been sentenced to two months in jail, followed by deportation," embassy spokesman Simon Goldsmith said....

USA:
No, Mr. President:
John Piper's Response to President Obama on Abortion

AUSTRALIA: Training tomorrow's leaders

There is a great need in this nation to assist those students and recent graduates who demonstrate a high potential to become influential leaders for Christ across strategic areas of our nation including politics, law, media, science, education, arts and philosophy.
The Compass program, an eight-day course in Christian worldview, aims to address this need.

The inaugural program kicks off this Sunday with 40 students at the University of Queensland. For more information and to register interest for 2009, please go to www.compass.org.au .

Lyle Shelton
National Chief of Staff , Australian Christian Lobby